Perhaps others can flesh this out some...

The site which we know as BMH Iserlohn was originally a German garrison built, I believe, circa WWI and certainly used by a Panzer outfit during WWII. In fact, the Third Reich Eagle can still be seen on the main gates, albeit with the swastika carved out of the block upon which the eagle sits.

My understanding is the eagle has since been moved from the main gates to somewhere else on the grounds. At least he (I assume it was a male eagle!) is still around...

The site is now a college/technical college campus, unlike so many of the former Canadian/British sites in the area which have been allowed to slip into dereliction.

When my family and I lived in Iserlohn circa 1971-72, while my father was closing out the remaining Canadian holdings and transferring them to BAOR, my mother worked part-time in the 'tuck shop' at BMH and always quite enjoyed the rather cheeky squaddies who delighted in giving "The Colonial" a hard time. She was fully capable of handing it right back!!

One story that has stuck in my memory for some reason was of a young squaddie, Irish Ranger I believe, or perhaps he was Welsh...at any rate he always called her a Yank and she was forever correcting him.

One day he did it again and she pointedly told him that, no, she was NOT an American but a Canadian.

"Oh..." he shrugged "Same bloody difference!"

"Hmmm..." replied my mother, "Well, I suppose as an Englishman it's difficult for you to distinguish between the accents..."

"I'm not bloody English!! I'm Welsh (Irish, Scots, whatever he was)!!"

"Oh?" Mom replied with a shrug "Same bloody difference..."

He stopped calling her a Yank after that.

Excellent story!!!!!! and thanks very much.
Mikool

I was posted to Deilinghofen Fort Prince of Wales attached to 1 SSM Bty RCA (64-69). I well remember BMH Iserlohn. I have pictures of it's present state taken by a friend for mine. I'll have to dig them out and post a few of them. One of my memories of BMH was being asked to volunteer to give blood as they were short. So a group of us went down and gave blood. The Medic who attended us was RAMC and not RCAMC. Well.... We found out they gave you a bottle of beer after giving blood. This was something new for us Canadians as all we got from the Canadian Red Cross was a Coke or coffee and doughnuts. We kind of terrorized the young RAMC medic and got a second beer each as we told him we felt faint. Still on a request for a 3rd bottle each, he booted us out with the explanation that he was going to have to explain the missing beer, as it should total only one beer = one donation of blood. Then there was the time a fellow buddy from our section went for a circumcision . A memory to be shared at another time.

i have great memories of bmh iserlohn.i played football there in the 70s the social side of life was very good.really enjoyed krankenfolk where you could see some top folk acts.my daughter was born there in 1980.by the way i was a naafi manager in hemer.

My Brother (Deceased) was born in Iserlohn.

stephen i started in HEMER NAAFI 18/12 1973 so i missed you by a year or two.graham

Graham,

I lived in Hemer 1972 - 1975, we lived in Berlinner Strasse. My Dad was an Auditor for Naafi traveling around the stores and clubs. His name was Gwilym Pritchard, sadly he died in 1980 at 55. I worked down in the stores one summer holiday (1974 ?) pricing up tins and stuff, I can't remember the mangers name but before him it was a guy called Skeltonbury ? My sister also worked in clothing for a while.

We also lived in Iserlohn and Munster - Great Times!

It would be good to hear from you.

Thanks

Gwyn

. . . . oh my mum worked in the BIA office on Berlinner Strasse at the back of the school. People used to come to the BIA to replace broken household items.

The 1st Royal Irish and REME? took up residence in Hemer.

Wow memories are flooding back but I won't bore you all.

Gwyn

gwyn,i was in hemer naafi from dec 73 to nov 82,became manager of the foodhall in dec 78.never met your dad i was only a lowly storeman when i started there,humping sacks of spuds about.len skantlebury left before my time.mr stevenson was my first boss along with his wife.trying to remember you gwyn,name rings a bell.fire a few names at me ,it might jog my memory.graham.

Graham,

When I was a part time storeman (summer of 74) there were three or four full timers who I think lodged in Hemer somewhere (they walked down towards town). There was a tall thin guy (I think his surname was Brown ?) who seemed to be the most senior storeman, a shorter guy very helpful showed me the ropes and fixed my pricing machine when I broke it. (was this you ?) My Pricing Table was by the conveyor belt up to the shop floor.
I also had to break up bakery goods that had passed their sell by date.

Was the main delivery day Wednesday evening.

There was also a lady behind me that did the veg, her daughter used to do pricing but she got promoted to a cashier. Her boyfriend was also a storeman(?).

I used to fancy a girl who ran the little confectionary shop (Ann, sigh!) any excuse to go upsatirs and sort out her empties.

Who would the store manager have been at that time.

Good to speak with you.

Gwyn

gwyn,think i remember you you now.the woman on the fruit and veg was veronica and her daughter was yvonne yvvonne was going out with john brown.there was me,little jimmy ,mike from essex and we all lived in the westiger hof past the railway line on the way to town.little annie brown was the girl in the candy store(no relation to john)she married a lad from 2 royal irish.i remember your dad as well(nice man as i now remember)i remember when we were told he had died ,very sad.it was me who talked you through the pricing gun saga,for some reason i could fathom out those crap guns but thats as far as my techno knowledge stretched.i am off tomorrow so i will dig out some photos.graham.

gwyn,had a look at my millions of photos and low and behold cant find any before 1979.must have moved over 30 times inthe last 35 years and lost a lot of stuff over the years.got some pixs of the shop inside and out from slightly later.graham.

Graham, thanks for looking. A more recent pic from inside and out would still be interesting. Aggh yes little Annie Brown. I used to go to the Long Bar (probably not the right name) 100 yds or so passed the Sally Army.

So how did you manage to transfer from Naafi to uniform?

Gwyn